Get (copy) the path of a file or folder in mac

Thursday. June 27, 2019 - 1 min

During the last year, I have been working using MAC. The feature that I miss the most is a fast way to get the path of a file or folder and an immediate way to move to a given path. Although SHIFT+CMD+d activates the Go to the folder: action and solves the second, I did not find an alternative for the first.

Visualizing and copying the path to a file or folder is easy from Finder:

1. Select the file or folder in Finder
2. CMD+i to summon Get Info
3. Click and drag alongside “Where” to select the path

But I find myself frequently needing to copy and paste a file or folder path and this option became tedious.

So I discovered the Automator, an application that allows you to automate tasks.

1. We can launch Automator and create a Quick Action document
2. Using the library select Utilities and drag and drop Copy to Clipboard to the gray are of actions
3. On Workflow receives current select files or folders and on in select Finder
4. Save the document as Copy Path

Now we can access to the Quick Action using the context menu in Finder.

Carles Hernandez-Ferrer

Bioinformatics, data analysis and software development

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